Investor's Business Daily

Holidays Don't Stop IBD Readers Across The Globe From Meeting

Marie Beerens

Ah, 2006 has arrived and you're looking forward to a year filled with exciting market action and profitable trades.

As an IBD reader and investors.com user, you have worked on, or perhaps even perfected, your chart reading and stock selection skills.

You may be interested in sharing your knowledge and hearing new ideas from other passionate investors like yourself. IBD Meetup (ibd.meetup.com) is a free service bringing such people together.

Once-a-month meetings, usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, mark the United Investor's Business Daily Meetup Day. Individuals around the world get together and talk about IBD articles, the CAN SLIM principles, chart patterns, their investment successes and failures and how to get the most out of IBD and Investors.com.

Since its launch in August 2003, IBD Meetup has gotten under its belt more than 4,000 events and nearly 16,000 members, spread out among 158 groups in 147 cities.

The majority of the members are in the U.S., but the passion for discussing the IBD system has spread throughout the world. The group in London has 89 members; Melbourne, Australia, hosts a 14-member group; and nine members congregate regularly in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In addition to the existing ones, another 7,000 members -- that's right, 7,000 -- are waiting to launch an IBD Meetup group.

Last Wednesday, IBD Meetup groups from 93 towns and cities met. One such group was the Santa Monica Investor's Business Daily Meetup Group, in Santa Monica, California.

The group has 291 members and was set up two years ago when the IBD Meetup was started. Despite the holiday-shortened week, 18 investors attended the two-hour discussion on earnings and reviewed some of their stock trades.

"I have been coming here for about a year, and I've always been an avid IBD fan," said Brett Conrad, founder of Longboard Capital Advisors. "It was the only thing that really made sense to me in the investment world."

Conrad said he joined the IBD Meetup group to get refreshing ideas, not only for current stock plays but also for fundamentals.

"I use this as a basis for all my purchases, for my first screening," he said. "I use Daily Graphs. I can't do my job without it. ... It's getting me everything I need."

Conrad also looks into the company, talks to its customers and employees and tries to figure out how it is going to do long term. He reviews their market size, the product or service they offer and whether employees are very passionate about the company.

"You (IBD) have developed a methodology based on historical analysis. It's a much clearer picture than other financial publications," he said.

Participants discussed a dozen stocks, reviewing their charts, fundamentals and when they bought or sold them. They analyzed American Healthways, SanDisk, Syneron Medical, Brazilian firm Gol Intelligent Airlines , Suntech Power Holdings, recent IPO Under Armour, online trading software firm TradeStation and Dynamic Materials.

"My long-term stocks, some of them have done very well for me over the years," said another participant. "And I do hold these until things change, and sometimes I held them too long. As things continued to change, I stayed with them and then regretted it."

When the market is falling sharply, the reader doesn't place money in bonds. Instead he says he keeps it in cash during bear markets, ready to jump in when the market takes off.

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